With the rapid growth of AI Search and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), the search world has been in a scramble to make sure they are getting their content ‘seen’ by users of these new tools including ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, Copilot and others.
The State of AI Search
Most of the conversation has been around the evolution of content planning. It includes topics like:
- Using earned media for visiblity
- Migration to topic or query fanout discovery
- Strength of brand mentions
- LLM Prompt Tracking
It is definitely a good time to dive deep into the research, read every blog and attend as many webinars as possible to get details and insights about the way GEO and AI search will work.
For the most part, there is a big similarity to advanced tactics for SEO including creating topic clusters, linking building with earned content and using schema throughout a website.
All of these things track pretty closely from SEO into the transition to GEO.
The Potential Game Changer
I recently found an article about LLM perception match: The hurdle before fanout and why it matters. It talks in detail about LLM perception match (LPM). At first, I thought it was going to talk about how LLMs – ChatGPT specifically – have developed brand perception and the elements it takes into account.
I was stopped in my tracks by the opening sentence. “If LLMs don’t see you as a fit, your content gets ignored.”
It is like AI is vetting you to determine if they want to invite you to the party to be included in citations with a persistent evaluation of your brand / company. It asks questions like who you are, what you offer and how well you fit the user’s need.
How Your Evaluated
Before you will even be recommended, LLMs use a variety of sources to formulate a perception of your products and your brand. According to an AI visibility study from SEMrush and other research studies, they have found several ranking factors including:
- Website content
- Brand mentions (including associated sentiment)
- Customer reviews
- Competitor comparison
- Structured data
- Content freshness
This perception is persistent and synthesized. If it doesn’t align with the user’s intent, persona, or expectations, your brand is excluded before fanout ever begins.
According to Jessica Bowman who wrote the article about LLM Perception Match, “Simply put, LLM perception match is the gatekeeper. Without it, content quality and SEO don’t matter – you won’t even be in the running.”
Auditing Your Brand in LLMs
So with this potential barrier to LLM and AI Search inclusion, what do you do?
Take the time to audit your brand and determine perception based on the results. Is the AI engine saying your products are hard to use, your features are behind the times or you used to be the market leader, but are lagging in development?
One thing about ChatGPT or other AI engines is that they won’t hold back or sugar-coat the reality about your marketplace perception. If there are weaknesses in your supply chain, product offering or customer experience, AI will surface that.
It might make for difficult conversations with senior leadership and operations. This change is a signal that the days are when when you could write great content for a crummy company and still win the search game.
What It Means for Brands
It means that working on search and PR means being in lock step with senior management and directly integrated with operations. It also means that companies that have been able to avoid looking at their end-to-end performance will start to become invisible in the search world . . . at least until ChatGPT monetizes their tool and allows people to buy their way back in.